The villa occupies one of the more enviable positions on the western shore of Lake Garda, and the project's brief was to honor that location without overplaying it. The owners wanted a weekend retreat sized for long summer days, capable of holding both solitude and company without forcing the household to commit to either. Mingotti and Giordano Architetti led the interior architecture, developing the program in collaboration with the Interni Design Experience team. The result is a residence that takes its time to reveal itself, room by room, each one composed with the same care but with a different tonal argument.
The garden is the project's opening statement. A gentle slope from the entrance gate descends toward a swimming pool whose curved geometry sets the rhythm for the entire exterior. Lounging zones cluster around it at varying degrees of shade, almost all of them furnished by Roda. The Dandy sofas anchor the principal seating arrangement. Double ottomans move between functions, and Network occasional tables sit close by to catch a glass or a book. Vases from Dedon's Dala collection punctuate the planted edges of the pool, decorative without becoming ornamental.
The exterior kitchen is built into the garden as a permanent fixture rather than a service afterthought. Clad fully in Kerlite for weather resistance, it accommodates a generous sink, a refrigerator, and a small wine reserve, the kind of program that makes a poolside aperitif a matter of crossing a few meters rather than the length of the house. Roda's Harp barstools complete the counter, and two Bay Master parasols by Tuuci handle the shade with a more technical visual language than the surrounding planting. A planted perimeter screens the property from neighboring views on the lake.
The veranda fronting the pool extends the living program outdoors. Two linear sofas and a pair of armchairs from Roda's Network collection compose a sheltered seating area, anchored by the brand's oversized Knot rug. Overhead, Philippe Starck's Superarchimoon for Flos arches across the space, its enormous shade serving as both light source and architectural punctuation.
The interior begins to argue more emphatically. Black wood paneling and gold detailing set the tone in the dining room and principal living spaces, with hardwood flooring warming the composition. A De Castelli Celato low cabinet, finished entirely in striated DeLabré brass, separates the dining table from the rest of the volume and supplies considerable concealed storage to the room it serves. Down a short hallway, a Poltrona Frau 1919 armchair sits in leather upholstery, a piece designed at the brand's founding and still in production a century later, here doing the work of a quiet reference to an earlier register.
A step down brings the living area into view. The principal sofa is a Chester Moon by Baxter, finished in pale leather that reveals the visible stitching the design is built around. Three Chester Moon ottomans extend the family of forms across the room, while four Archibald armchairs by Poltrona Frau in black leather flank the arrangement at either side. The centerpiece is a Minotti Elliot occasional table with a Sahara Noir marble top set on a polished gold base, a piece that sets the room's chromatic register on its own.
An adjacent lounge holds a longer custom sofa in blue velvet drawn opposite a wall-mounted television installation. Between the sofa and the wall sits a triptych of De Castelli Syro tables in iron, brass, and copper, the organic forms reading as if they had grown into the room rather than been delivered to it.
The glazed conservatory is a different room entirely. Roof and walls in glass admit light without interruption. Two olive-green leather Willy armchairs by Poltrona Frau hold one end of the space, while a light-green velvet sofa supplies seating on the opposite side. Lighting was specified in collaboration with Mingotti and Giordano Architetti through Laudarte, with Stelo Box floor lamps in glossy gold flanking the principal arrangement and a Stelo Campanula completing one of the Poltrona Frau armchairs.
The basement carries the most dedicated thematic exercise in the residence. Descending the stairs reads as a deliberate departure from the rest of the house, an architectural staging of a Continental fumoir of the 1920s. A billiards room centers on the playing table, lit by a gold-plated brass Matheny chandelier from Boca do Lobo. A bespoke bar runs opposite, fronted by Mansfield stools from the same house, upholstered in powder-blue Dedar velvet. A Baxter Amburgo armchair in leather sits beside the bar for the quieter half of an evening, set against dark wall coverings tuned to absorb the room's warmer light.
The villa rewards the attention it asks for, with sensitivity and detail running across every room. The collaboration between Mingotti and Giordano Architetti and Interni Design Experience produced an interior architecture in which the owners' instincts are visible without the rooms ever feeling like a brief was followed too literally.
